Mr Blakebrough, who financed his own campaign, said: “I can’t blame people for voting for a local guy. When I met him, I was very impressed and I think he is a good guy. He was by far the
outstanding candidate and I think the people of Blaenau Gwent got it right.

“The thing with the Liberal Democrats is that we don’t have the resources to fight elections and don’t have a natural core vote.”

He said he felt the election was not fought on Welsh issues.

Mr Blakebrough said: “We all know that the Westminster coalition was going to be tough for us in Wales and it obviously proved to be so, but that the price we pay. It’s just a shame it was not an
election on Welsh issues.”